Results show life improved, but not by as much as you might think

Apple's new iPhone 6 promises improved battery life, which has been a weakness with older iPhones. At its product introduction, Apple promised up to 14 hours of talk time for the iPhone 6 and up to 24 hours for the iPhone 6 Plus.

Consumer Reports battery test results are in and find the battery life has indeed improved, but not by as much as you might think. In Consumer Reports' lab tests, the iPhone 6 delivers 10 hours of talk time on a charge, and the iPhone 6 Plus — about 17 hours.

"That's better than the 8 hours of talk time we got with the iPhone 5s. But other phones' batteries did better in our tests," said Mike Gikas with Consumer Reports.

In comparison, the LG G3 delivers about 19 hours of talk time and Samsung Galaxy S5 20 hours.

Last week, Consumer Reports released results of its iPhone 6 bend tests. Apple has been taking a lot of heat with reports that its new iPhone 6 phones bend under pressure. Testers wanted to bring some science to the matter to find how much force it takes for the iPhone 6 to bend and not bend back.

Consumer Reports took one sample each of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus along with other comparably-sized competitors into its labs for stress testing. Using a special Instron machine, testers apply force to the phones until they deform.

It turns out, it takes a lot of force to permanently bend one of the new iPhones -- and all the other phones tested for that matter.

Even the phones that bent first -- the iPhone 6 and the HTC One M8 -- took 70 pounds of force before bending permanently.

The iPhone 6 Plus took more punishment at 90 pounds. The smaller, thicker iPhone 5 outperformed both in the tests, with no noticeable deformation until 130 pounds.

Finally, the LG G3 and Samsung Galaxy Note 3 sprang back to form until the testers applied 130 pounds and 150 pounds respectively. At that point, their screens separated from their cases and stopped working.

So what's the bottom line? Consumer Reports says, based on its comparative tests, while the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are not the strongest phones on the market, fears of a serious structural design flaw seem overblown.

All Consumer Reports material copyright 2014 by Consumers Union of U.S. Inc. All rights reserved. Consumer Reports is published by Consumers Union. Both Consumer Reports and Consumers Union are not-for-profit organizations that accept no advertising. Neither has any commercial relationship with any advertiser or sponsor on this site.